Bloody Mary #3

Carlos Ezquerra's cover for this penultimate chapter of Garth Ennis's four-part Helix series pulls no punches — a bloodied white-haired woman lies wounded in the foreground while a menacing blond figure advances behind her, gun in hand, a looming skull motif filling the sky above them. The composition drips with tension and brutality, perfectly suited to the gritty tone DC's mature-readers imprint was delivering in 1996. With Ennis writing and Ezquerra handling both pencils and inks, Bloody Mary #3 is a taut, uncompromising read that rewards fans of hard-edged action storytelling.